Improbable Truths
by Check Your Reflection
Summary: Veronica Leblanc was just trying to get laid but she sure picked the wrong lady to try with. What starts out looking like a one night stand ends up being the beginning of a very strange ordeal, she and her best friend end up leaving the country to start their lives over. Tie in w/ Rise of the Valkyrie


AN: For this part I tried to use locations I am familiar with (that would be Texas) and people a I familiar with (Cajuns or at least my family, myself and others I have met) so the locations (at least for now) are real and are places I love. Also Mabel Peabody's does exist and is a lovely place.

1 - Escape

* * *

- Near Round Rock, TX - July 15 -

Tripping over the garden hose and kicking a bucket I make more noise than I should. I hastily dash under the porch, hoping they think that I am some animal and hoping that there isn't one already in my hiding place. The door opens and closes after a few moments, I wait to hear the click of the lock and it never comes, I take the chance to move to the side of the porch by the back door. I have never broken into a house before. And I would like to never have to do it again. I only want one thing from doing this, and that is freedom. Not mine, I'm freer than I need to be really, but my oldest friend's, trapped in the worst kind of prison, one of her creation.

I'm still squatting by the back door, waiting for the perfect moment. I'm waiting for the attention to shift from my bumbling outside and to the un-kept woman who hasn't spoken to me in years. My first and only real love; the only person I really have ever cared for. I hear the voices raise and a cry of pain pierce the night, it is now or never.

I get up; take the stun gun out of my bag and open the door quietly, sneaking in with the gun drawn I creep up behind the man who looms over my friend. As hard as I can I shove the prongs of the taser into his neck and watch him convulse until the falls the ground in a heap. I pull him up and over to a chair to tie him up and from behind me I hear a ragged voice say my name.

* * *

- Mable Peabody's Beauty Parlor & Chainsaw Repair - Denton, TX - July 14 -

I sit at the only girly bar for about fifty miles, and I have been sitting here for a few hours. I just received a fairly prestigious learning opportunity that had serious travel plans. My former professor found me a job at a teaching hospital in London. He told me that they had a growing psych department and were looking for more PTSD trained personally. He sent them my research and they wanted to have me on their team.

I'm super excited, happier than I have been in years; only thing I lack is someone to celebrate with. Most of the ladies in this bar are already in relationships or are not interested or worse undergrads that came from the university across the way to live "dangerously". Bah! I'm all for finding yourself in bars but I need to get laid and the Pioneers are not interested in me, regardless of the rumors that surround that school.

I'm on my second jack and coke when I get a whiff of sweet perfume through all the smoke and beer smell. That's no cheap perfume if it can hold its scent through this nasty air. I turn to my left and see a stunning brunette take the stool next to me. The way she looks at me is how a lioness sizes up an antelope. I swallow the bit of drink in my mouth hard and feel a heat creep up my neck. She is staring into me and I'm sixteen on this barstool and feel like tonight will be my night.

* * *

- Near Round Rock, TX - July 15 -

I lift Rebecca off the ground and props her up on the couch, leaving her only to get a sack of frozen peas out of the freezer for her head. I take the time to look around, it's nice here. Classy furniture, high end electronics, everything you would expect out of a nice suburb. Most folks think you got to be broke, drunk, and uneducated to beat on your wife; but most folks have never worked in a women's shelter and there you see all kinds.

Becca takes a minute or two to come to but is crying when it happens. "What have you done Veronica? Now he will be worse than ever! Do you know what he can do to me? My sister? He knows people! He'll hurt -"

"Becca calm down! I know all that."

"Then why would you do this?"

"Because I love you and I know people too."

* * *

- Mable Peabody's Beauty Parlor & Chainsaw Repair - Denton, TX - July 14 -

I listen to this stranger order her drink, too embarrassed to say anything. I feel like a damn kid and know that she is going to leave the bar and I'll miss my chance to even say hello. But she doesn't leave. I chance to glance over at her and she is looking at me. She's smiling at me. I'm speechless. I hold my breath, not wanting to breathe in the tension I can feel hanging in the air.

The next thing I hear, over the orders called out at the bar and the drunken girl singing karaoke, is her voice. It comes through as clear and deep as I hoped it would although with an accent other than Texas twang. "Have you been misbehaving?"

* * *

- Near Round Rock, TX - July 15 -

"Who can you possibly have that could help this situation?"

"I need help?" I turn to the downed man in the hallway as I bring my boot up and bring it down squarely into his shoulder joint hearing it pop out of place.

"Oh God stop Ver! You're just making it worse!"

"No, I think I have everything under control."

"Seriously, we'll all have to pay for this!"

"No it is taken care of. Regardless of what he has made you believe all these years he is not all powerful."

Becca had been reduced to shaking and rocking on the couch and I stood over the unconscious monster livid that my rescue was what brought her to tears and not his horrid actions. Yes he had political pull and new so persons of questionable morality but I knew the weaknesses now and had all that I needed to get Rebecca out of this place. I even had the information to get her sister out as well.

What had started as getting laid back in North Texas had ended up being quite the adventure. And Miss Adler has certainly done her homework.

* * *

- Mable Peabody's Beauty Parlor & Chainsaw Repair - Denton, TX - July 14 -

I spit out my drink, earning me a dirty look from the bartender causing my mystery woman to chuckle lightly, I would dare maybe even to call it a giggle, but not quite. I have to think for a second to process what I just heard. It was both the silliest and flooring first line I have ever heard. And by those standards you could say it worked.

I cannot form words as she sits there smirking at me, knowing she knocked me off balance. Normally I would be turned off by such cockiness but when she apologizes and buys me a drink I find it very easy to forgive her. Tall, all cheekbones and beauty, but still looking like she could take me down and I would let her. Plus she had really pretty hair. She was very pale, and her red lipstick and dark hair gave her face an unearthly look.

This woman was gonna steal my heart and I was okay with that.

We talk, all night, looking back it was me doing all the talking. I knew nothing about this woman except that she was pretty and smelled heavenly. She leans over and kisses me very lightly, I can taste the sweet red wine she had been drinking and it clashes horribly with the jack on mine.

She takes my hand, which compared to my skin make her look like a ghost. I drunkenly think that we're ying and yang. She takes me to my car although I don't remember telling her which one was mine, but I don't care because she is kissing me again as she opens the passenger door. I ask her if she is good to drive and she says yes. I believe her. I haven't felt like this in a long time and I was willing to believe whatever she said.

* * *

- Near Round Rock, TX - July 15 -

I have her husband tied up and gagged for when he wake up and I set to work. I go to where the instructions tell me to in his office and find exactly what I am looking for. Enough evidence to put him away for years on all sorts of counts: embezzlement, soliciting of a minor, photo evidence of some of his nastier work on Becca, all sorts of things that are going to make it very hard for me to sleep.

I pile them neatly on the desk and set to the next task. I take out the forms that have his signature forged on them and put them on the coffee table by Becca. I tell her that her husband wants her to sign them and she does. I feel bad doing that but it is for her own good, or at least I fell like it is. I have followed all the instructions and have gathered up Rebecca. But before I leave I take the measure to toss his semi conscious body upstairs and toss him from a window.

I'm leaving as the police are pulling up and they ignore me and my passenger, just like Irene said they would.

* * *

- Unknown location, TX - July 15 -

We had driven for hours before I had sobered up enough to realize it was a long way back to Denton. We get to a hotel off the highway, she checks in no problem and the manager winks at me. I feel uneasy but still follow her to the elevator, down the hall, and into her room. And once there I see that we are not alone.

I realize my mistake as the cold blue eyes of the man stare at me it takes every ounce of my strength to try and run. But I don't even make it out the door. Their hands are upon and they are pulling me back in. I had never been so scared in my entire life.

* * *

- Austin, TX - July 16 -

I knock on the green apartment door hoping that Janice can hear me in her sleep. After a while she comes to the door half dressed and with a rat's nest for hair. It takes her a second to register who I am and who I am with. It is the first time she has seen her sister in about three years and they nearly do not recognize each other.

I explain that she needs to leave because Rebecca's husband may still come for her as an act of revenge. At this point Irene comes from behind me and hands he a large envelope and says simply that everything is taken care of and that she should get to New York and stay with a childhood friend named Carina Giroux. I know Janice will not go strait there and will detour in Beaumont to get her friend. I don't tell them because, in all honesty, they probably already know.

They don't care about Janice, Carina, or even Rebecca. It's me they want. They want me for a job that only I can do and I hate it.

* * *

- Unknown location, TX - July 14 -

I'm sitting in a hotel chair as the woman explains that they have a job for me and that I am the perfect person for it. They explain I am not expected to do it for free, no, I will be heavily compensated. I don't know how these two know about me or worse how they know about a friend I haven't seen in two years and frankly I don't want to know. I wish I was still in that bar listening to shitty karaoke.

They show me many things that I knew about Rebecca Wilson McDurrant, and some that nearly floor me. They tell me about Mr. McDurrant's shady connections and how he could harm her family in any way he wanted. The man gives me very detailed information about what I need to do to save my friend and says to use this room as my base and where to bring Becca when I fetch her.

I learn that everything in my life recently has been orchestrated by them and that my silence is of the upmost importance. Even my studying abroad was arranged. At this knowledge I am seething, I feel so used so insulted by this I can barely think strait.

* * *

- San Antonio, TX - July 16 -

Becca, the two others, and I take off in my car and I drop them off at the airport. I haven't slept in days but I know neither Becca nor I can stand to be in Austin anymore so I start heading south for San Antonio. I'm gonna take her to Sea World, she always loved it when we were kids, even if we did have to baby sit her sister and the neighbor's kids.

She's silent in the beginning but after some food and a nap at one of the shows in the splash zone she starts to brighten up. I know it will take her whole life to heal from this and me and those two shadow masters didn't make it easier, but I think after a good night's sleep we can head out to my assignment.

* * *

- Unknown location, TX - July 15 -

The two kingpins are long gone and I have been sitting at the desk reading over what they gave me. They help me get my friend out of her abusive marriage and protect her family in exchange for me going to keep an eye and try to treat a Dr. John Watson. I cannot say who sent me or that I even know what's going on but he is my responsibility. Before they left I asked them one question, the only damn question they bothered to answer.

"Who the hell are you people!"

The man turns around and the woman has already left, I don't even get a pity lay, he looks me like he's figuring out my childhood just from the way I look or something equally un-nerving.

"She was Irene Adler."

"And who are you exactly?"

"Sherlock Holmes. Have fun with your breaking in, we will meet you at 44c Mocking Bird Way when you are finished. Don't keep us waiting."

* * *

- San Antonio, TX - July 19 -

Two women stood in a terminal of SAT as they waited for their plane. They had decided to take a few days to relax and since everything was being covered by that dreaded puppet master they decided he owed them a few mental health days. With Veronica's psychology background she took the liberty to say that somewhere research agreed with her.

"Think we'll see them again Veron?"

"God I hope not. But just in case, I kept the taser."

"I hope you didn't put that in your carry on."

"Of course not, TSA is the last thing I need to deal with right now."

"So all we have to do is keep an eye on the Watson man yes?"

"Pretty much, try and help if we can do it without being obvious I suppose as well."

"For how long?"

"Dunno Becca, until shadow man says so I guess."

They sat in silence until the announcement came on that their plane was boarding. They calmly got up and headed off, hand in hand, to fly off to London and complete their end of a bargain neither of them even realized they had made.


End file.
